The news that UGC has a proposal to institute contractual appointments for three or five years in the universities and colleges in future, is a welcome reform in the higher education, especially for science teaching and research. The UGC has become alive and active to the non-deliverance, sheer indifference and non-professionalism of the teachers and this awareness and need to do something about it, would indeed go a long way to revive excellence in higher education. Three decades back in 1972 the author had suggested to UGC the same step in a slightly different form. The conditions in the institutions were not as alarming then as they are to-day. The situation has worsened not only quantitatively but qualitatively too. It is a sorry state that at present the teachers in general do anything else other than teaching and study. The author had suggested to the UGC an annual evaluation of the teacher by the students whom she/he taught in the year on the basis of a proforma followed by an impartial and objective assessment by a committee of senior teachers. Another suggestion made was to eliminate inbreeding and minimize misuse of authority in the selection committees - the first appointment not to be made from amongst the postgraduates or research degree holders of the same University.
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